Jelly Castle
by Burgie
Summary: Vanellope asks Ralph to help her get a treasure. Jawbreaker, oneshot, movie ages.


The huge, shimmering red jelly-castle rose from the field of green jelly which Ralph had carefully made his way over while a certain president had bounded over it happily. Now, said president was standing atop Ralph's right shoulder and gazing in open-mouthed awe at the castle before them.

"Now, this here is a castle that I could get used to living in," she grinned, and left her shoes on Ralph's shoulder before launching herself at the mass of jelly with a delighted shriek. Ralph flinched, anticipating a small body bouncing back into him, but that never came.

"I keep forgetting how agile you are, kid," Ralph chuckled, making his way unsteadily over to the castle after brushing the shoes off his shoulder.

"I'm as agile as you are strong," Vanellope boasted, standing proudly on top of the castle. "Speaking of strength, we need to make some kind of entry to get to the treasure inside the jelly castle so..." She trailed off with a grin.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm just your muscle," Ralph laughed, but swung back his fist anyway in preparation for a blow. Vanellope couldn't stop a small giggle from escaping and, when Ralph's fist bounced back from the jelly and threw him back onto his back, she doubled over in helpless laughter.

"This jelly's super-bouncy, you idiot!" she cackled, tears of laughter escaping her eyes as he tried and failed to get up, his attempts becoming increasingly hilarious as his anger made him clumsier.

"Vanellope," he huffed, glaring up at the little brat. "Help me up."

"Gee, I dunno, I'm not exactly very strong," she responded, flexing an arm.

"I guess this princess won't be saved by her Prince Charming, then," Ralph decided, and wobbled to his feet before beginning to walk away.

"Wait!" she called after him, fear suddenly replacing her happiness. "Don't go! Ralph, c'mon, I was only joking. Ralph!" Her voice broke on the last word and Ralph almost lost his nerve. But he continued on.

"No, I'll just go back to my game. You can get someone else to help you," the wrecker informed her. He heard a frustrated growl from behind him and suddenly a small girl landed on his shoulder and teleported him to the top of the castle.

"There, I helped you up," she sniffled. "Are you happy now?" To her surprise, Ralph was laughing. It took her all of three seconds to work out that she'd been tricked. "Hey! That wasn't funny, Ralph!"

"You should've seen you," Ralph laughed, his laughter making the whole jelly castle wobble. He adopted a high-pitched, girly voice: "Oh, Ralph, don't go, I was only joking! Ralph, please, I can't stay here on my own, I don't know how to get down! I'm a princess waiting for her Prince Charming to rescue her!" He continued to laugh and, finally, Vanellope could begin to see the funny side.

"I don't sound like that," she huffed, and wiped her teary eyes with a sleeve of her hoodie. She punched his knee, which wouldn't hurt him, but it made her feel a whole lot better.

"Did I really scare you?" Ralph asked, tilting her chin up with a large finger.

"No," she lied, looking down at the treasure chest visible through the thick red jelly. "Anyway, we can get back to getting that treasure now that you're up here."

"Well, I can't wreck the jelly so how're we gonna get at the treasure?" Ralph asked, peering down at the treasure chest.

"You can't punch the jelly or you'll only end up in another part of my game, but you can dig through it," Vanellope instructed. "I can't because my hands are too small but that's why I asked you to bring a spoon over here." Ralph extracted the spoon from his overalls pocket and poked at the jelly with it. It rippled, mocking him. He jabbed at it with the spoon and almost poked his eye out with it. Growling, he raised his hand, feeling the wrecking energy pour through him, and slammed the spoon into the jelly. It flew out of his hand and landed somewhere else entirely.

"Well, that worked," he grumbled, and Vanellope giggled.

"Have you got any other ideas?" Vanellope wondered, blinking her huge eyes at him adorably.

"Why don't we just eat the jelly?" Ralph suggested. "We only have to get into the space where the treasure chest is, right?"

"Well, actually, no," Vanellope admitted. "Y'see, the treasure chest is encased in jelly. So we're gonna have to eat a lot of it."

"Got any ice cream?" Ralph asked. "Jelly's easier to eat with ice cream. And I can eat all this, too, don't worry about that."

"Big hands, big appetite, big heart," Vanellope listed, with a goofy grin at the last word. "I'll go get that ice cream, you just wait here." She glitched away and returned minutes later with two large buckets filled to the brim with the soft ice cream from her game. She pulled a spoon for herself out of her hoodie pocket and set down Ralph's large spoon beside one of the buckets.

Ralph scooped some ice cream out of the bucket, diminishing the contents by half, and happily ate it.

"The sweets are all better here," he commented with a smile. "Let's just hope this jelly's the same."

"It should be," Vanellope shrugged. With a shrug of his own, Ralph leaned over to the side of the castle and sank his teeth into the red jelly. He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed.

"It's pretty good," he declared. "You can have some too if you want."

"That's why I brought my own bucket of ice cream," she grinned, and sat beside him.

Together, the two ate their way through the jelly castle (with generous helpings of ice cream every few mouthfuls) and arrived at the treasure chest. It came free from the jelly with a wet-sounding _pop_ and both gamers took in their prize with eager eyes.

"Do you have any idea of what's in that chest?" Ralph wondered, watching as Vanellope withdrew a key from her pocket and slid it into the lock of the treasure chest.

"Nope," she admitted, beaming at him. "There's one in every zone, though, as I found out when I became princess again. The one in the ice cream zone had this ice key in it."

"Maybe this'll have another key in it," Ralph suggested.

"Maybe," Vanellope agreed with a nod, and opened the lid of the treasure chest with a flourish. Her grin quickly turned to confusion. Sitting in the treasure chest was a single red egg with question marks around it.

"What's a red egg with question marks got to do with anything?" Ralph asked with a furrowed brow. "And what's it doing in your game?"

"Guess it's just a mystery egg," Vanellope shrugged, and replaced the egg in its treasure chest before closing it and handing it to Ralph. "C'mon, we'll take this back to the castle. Maybe Sour Bill will know something about this." With that, the two left with their minds full of questions and their bellies full of ice cream and jelly.


End file.
